Maldives corruption: less than one percent of cases sent for prosecution in 2017

March 0616:472018

Less than one percent of cases investigated for graft were sent for prosecution in 2017, figures from the Anti-Corruption Commission show.

The watchdog concluded that 1,326 cases either did not involve corruption, or that it was not going to probe them further because there was nothing suspicious, or that there was no corruption but that it would give recommendations to the institutions involved.

It sent 12 cases to the Prosecutor General’s office during the course of the year although the ACC has not provided figures for February, March or June. It rejected 86 cases last year although figures for May, June and August are not provided.

Some of the cases investigated date back years, including one from 2011.

“We forward to PG only cases that we can regard as corruption under the Anti-Corruption Act and articles in chapters 510 and 310 of the penal code which also falls under our mandate,” ACC information officer Hassan Manik told the Maldives Independent.

There was no corruption in the granting of 50 Hajj places to the first lady’s charitable foundation, it ruled.

The Sadaqat Foundation – which is run by First Lady Fathimath Ibrahim – faced multiple corruption allegations in 2016, including the allocation of 50 pilgrimage spots from the Islamic Ministry.

The ACC, which concluded its investigation in November, said Islamic Ministry guidelines allowed the awarding of Hajj quotas to volunteer organisations and so there was no corruption.

In 2016, 63 out of 400 quotas reserved by the Islamic Ministry were given to volunteer organisations, it said. The Saudi government issued a total of 2,000 Hajj quotas that year.

Online news site VFPreported that the Sadaqat Foundation also received a Hajj allocation last year.

Last month Transparency International said the Maldives had made little to no progress in its efforts to combat corruption, falling 17 positions in country rankings.